“Perhaps I thought a couple of days of your society would cheer me up,” he observed lightly.  “I daresay that seems odd too.”

Will laughed in spite of himself.  “Well, you’ve seen me with my nose to the grindstone anyhow.  You can tell Daisy I’m working like a troop-horse for her and the boy!  Jove!  What a knowing little beggar that youngster used to be!  He isn’t very strong though, Daisy writes.”

“How often do you hear?” asked Nick.

“Oh, the last letter came three weeks ago.  They were all well then, but she didn’t stop to say much because Grange was there.  He is staying with them, you know.”

“You haven’t heard since then?” There was just a hint of indignation in Nick’s query.

Will shook his head.  “No.  She’s a bad correspondent, always was.  I write by every mail, and of course, if there were anything I ought to know, she would write too.  But they are leading a fairly humdrum existence just now.  She can’t have much to tell me.”

Nick changed the subject.  “How long has Grange been there?”

“I don’t know.  Some time, I think.  But I really don’t know.  They are very old pals, you know, he and Daisy.  There was a bit of a romance between them, I believe, years ago, when she was in her teens.  Their people wouldn’t hear of it because they were first cousins, so it fizzled out.  But they are still great friends.  A good sort of fellow, I always thought.”

“Too soft for me,” said Nick.  “He’s like a well-built ship adrift without a rudder.  He’s all manners and no grit—­the sort of chap who wants to be pushed before he can do anything.  I often ached to kick him when we were boxed up at Wara.”

Will smiled.  “The only drawback to indulging in that kind of game is that you may get kicked back, and a kick from a giant like Grange would be no joke.”

Nick looked supremely contemptuous.  “Fellows like Grange don’t kick.  They don’t know how.  That’s why I had to leave him alone.”

He turned into Will’s sitting-room and stretched himself out upon an ancient charpoy furnished with many ancient cushions that stood by the window.

Will gave him a cigarette, and lighted it.  “I wonder how many nights I have spent on that old shake-down,” he remarked, as he did it.

Nick glanced upwards.  “Last year?”

Will nodded.  “It was like hell,” he said, with terrible simplicity.  “I came straight back here, you know, after Daisy left Simla.  I suppose the contrast made it worse.  Then, too, the sub was ill, and it meant double work.  Well,” with another sigh, “we pulled through somehow, and I suppose we shall again.  But, Nick, Daisy couldn’t possibly stand this place more than four months out of the twelve.  And as for the kiddie—­”

Nick removed his cigarette to yawn.

“You won’t be here all your life, my son,” he said.  “You’re a rising man, remember.  There’s no sense in grizzling, anyhow, and you’re getting round-shouldered.  Why don’t you do some gymnastics?  You’ve got a swimming bath.  Go and do a quarter of a mile breast-stroke every day.  Jupiter!  What wouldn’t I give to”—­He broke off abruptly.  “Well, I’m not going to cry for the moon either.  There’s the khit on the verandah.  What does he want?”